The quality of this video varies due to older technologies and image degradation.

A voice-over describes the Point St. Charles area and its poor social and economical conditions and their effect on housing and health. Some citizens decide to gather together to fight against the deterioration and create a community pharmacy in January 1973. It's a different approach to health services, a small-scale alternative to the gadgets and commercial aspects of the traditional shops which care more about the customer's billfold than the patients. Examples are given by people working in the pharmacy to explain how health is exploited through certain medicines which are more harmful than beneficial, and they talk about the special relationship they have with their customers.

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Technical information

Color

Black and white

Image format

4:3

Sound

Mono

Shooting format

Betacam

Documentation

Further information

Commentary by Claire Valade, commissaire

Although it was made over 30 years ago, this documentary remains urgently topical. At a time when you can’t turn on the television—especially American channels—without being bombarded by ads trumpeting the benefits of this pill and that medicine for every known illness (complete with an equally frightening list of potential side effects), these community pharmacists’ opinions on the commodification of illness and the marketing of drugs are as eloquent as can be.